1 Plea for Purity Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 15:58 that you should abound more and more, Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:10 just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is (Rom. 12:2) the will of God, Eph. 5:27 your sanctification: (1 Cor. 6:15–20; Col. 3:5) that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 Rom. 6:19 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 Col. 3:5 not in passion of lust, Eph. 4:17, 18 like the Gentiles 1 Cor. 15:34 who do not know God;
6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord 2 Thess. 1:8 is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, Lev. 11:44; (Heb. 12:14); 1 Pet. 1:14–16 but in holiness.
8 Luke 10:16 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, 1 Cor. 2:10 who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
9 A Brotherly and Orderly Life But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for (Jer. 31:33, 34); John 6:45; 15:12, 17; (1 John 2:27) you yourselves are taught by God Matt. 22:39 to love one another;
10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, 1 Thess. 3:12 that you increase more and more;
11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, 2 Thess. 3:11;1 Pet. 4:15 to mind your own business, and Acts 20:35 to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
12 Rom. 13:13; Col. 4:5; (1 Pet. 2:12) that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
13 The Comfort of Christ’s Coming But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow Lev. 19:28 as others (Eph. 2:12) who have no hope.
14 For 1 Cor. 15:13 if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him 1 Cor. 15:20, 23 those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you 1 Kin. 13:17; 20:35;2 Cor. 12:1; Gal. 1:12 by the word of the Lord, that 1 Cor. 15:51, 52;1 Thess. 5:10 we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For (Matt. 24:30, 31) the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with (1 Cor. 15:52) the trumpet of God. (1 Cor. 15:23); 2 Thess. 2:1; Rev. 14:13; 20:6 And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 (1 Cor. 15:51–53); 1 Thess. 5:10 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them Dan. 7:13; Acts 1:9; Rev. 11:12 in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus John 14:3; 17:24 we shall always be with the Lord.
18 1 Thess. 5:11 Therefore comfort one another with these words.